For millions of people across the United States and the world, one of the most relaxing things to do is to fish on a quiet lake.

The ISU fishing club makes that quiet hobby an everyday activity — when the weather permits, of course — while members are in town for school.

“Some of us, we’ve fished our whole lives,” said Kyle Wood, a senior in animal science and the club’s president. “It’s just a great way to get together and fish competitively.”

The club fishes in competitive tournaments over the course of the year and gives students a chance to take part in events they might not otherwise have had a chance to.

Members operate under the FLW Outdoors tournament organization, which pits college teams across the nation against each other in tournaments.

“They break it up into regions across the country,” Wood said. “But we can compete in any region.”

Although teams can compete anywhere, schools are assigned to certain divisions.

“FLW assigns you your region,” said Travis Graves, a junior in animal ecology and the club’s vice president. “You have to register your club to FLW. We’re in the Central division, and you fish the four regionals. Then you go to the Central championship, and, if you win that, you go to Nationals.”

Graves said the nationwide tournaments are the most competitive.

Although an ISU fishing club team has yet to make it to the national tournament, the club’s members have had some good showings in the past few years, most recently finishing 13th and ninth out of the 40 teams in regional tournaments.

“We’ve done pretty good with the experience and number of guys we have,” Wood said. “Not all of our guys have a lot of tournament experience, so I think we’ve done well.”

The club also competes in tournaments for College Bass, in which teams have to bring their own boats. Those tournaments are usually for the more experienced fishermen, Wood said.

“Since I’m the only one in the club with my own boat, we usually don’t have many guys go to those,” Wood said. “But they are a lot of fun.”

Members say the ISU club is disadvantaged because they can’t fish year-round to hone their skills.

“We’re fishing against schools like Missouri, that fish all year long,” Graves said. “And there are guys from Arkansas, who’ve been fishing [year-round] their whole lives. We have that disadvantage all the time.”

But make no mistake, if the weather is good enough, these guys will be out on the lake.

“We fish every chance we get,” Wood said. “Ada Hayden is a popular spot, and we usually fish at Hickory Grove, in Nevada.”

And it’s not just students who like to get involved with fishing on campus. President Gregory Geoffroy also has a passion for fishing, and has joined the club the last few years for their annual spring tournament.

“We just had an interclub bass tournament on Sunday [the 25th],” Graves said. “[President Geoffroy] came out even though it was crappy weather, and I think he had a pretty good time.”

The president fished with Wood, who said he and Geoffroy caught quite a few fish, some of which were pretty big.

“He caught some pretty big fish,” Wood said. “There was a 15-inch minimum, and we had to throw a bunch back.”

And despite what Wood described as perpetual bad weather, Geoffroy said he had a great time.

“We had a lot of fun and caught some nice bass,” Geoffroy said. “It was a lot of fun, spending five hours on the boat with Kyle [Wood] and Nick [Johnson], talking about all the things they’re doing as ISU students and their future plans.”

So with summer just days away, Wood and Graves said fishing with Geoffroy was a great way to finish off the semester. They also said they look forward to fishing over the summer.

“We definitely fish over the summer,” Graves said. “And we’ll come back in the fall and do it all over again.”